Johann Wlight - rayth

 

Early Johann Wlight release, which, as with most of his releases, typically goes between the hesychastic/sacred and the abrasive/ominous. 2001 cdr on Sunny Days Out.

https://mega.nz/file/qcVXyAyQ#UoxKdpmgCEdiCPZPMSfYTvKkhYADfaYmdsLm8yqgTHI

Relay For Death - Anxiety Of The Eye

 

And this is their other recording of 2016, made up of manipulated field recordings of the Death Valley. Sounds of insects blend with ominous drones in a way that wouldn't be out of place with the best of Tribes Of Neurot (remember Adaptation and Survival) and even Robert Rich minus the new age elements. 2016 tape on No Rent Records.

Download 

Relay For Death - Natural Incapacity

 

The Spikula sisters are responsible for two of the most gruesome and bleak death industrial recordings of the previous decade, Birth of an Older Much Uglier Christ and They're Heating Up The Ovens, Get the Fuck Out Now. After about six or seven years and out of the blue they made two new recordings, which I only caught wind of in 2020. This is a double cd made of processed field recordings of sound pollution in California, and is definitely worthy of some of Maurizio Bianchi's more industrial wall-ish recordings. More than two hours of industrial deafening nothingness. 2016 2 X cd on Helen Scarsdale Agency.

Download

The Gerogerigegege & Sedem Minút Strachu - Kebab Kaaos/Monolith Dance split 7''

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last Juntaro released in 2020 is yet another split with Slovak noisecore fiends Sedem Minút Strachu, in which he offers an abrasive repetitive unintelligible spoken word field recording, whereas 7MS a pogo-inducing d-beat/grindcore/noisecore party anthem with vomiting vocals in the style of Last Days Of Humanity. 2020 7" on K.A.Z.

Download

Eric Lunde - Suites For Solo Analog Cassette Recorder

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every night I have trouble sleeping due to stress and lots of obligations and this is the only thing that helps me drift into sleep. It's the sound of mechanical nothingness, as the guy just put recorded the sound of deck players recording themselves in their built-in mics. 2002 self-released 2 x cdr.

Download

End of year boredom list part III

Alison Cotton - Only Darkness Now (Bloxham Tapes) - Download

Viola and harmonium-driven folk drones by a great artist.

The Gerogerigegege - decrescendo - review and link here

Haare - Brain (Aussaat) - Download

One of the most far out Haare works in recent memory.

Current 93 - If a Star Turns Into Ashes - review and link here

The Necks - Three - link here

Elodie - Le Nid D'Ivoire - link here

Calineczka - kysztymska - link here

Controlled Death - EVERYTHING - links here

Merula - Sleep (must listen) - review and link here

... and some things to look forward in 2021:

Xqui - Ambient (preorder here): sounds like Xqui's most levitating material since his early Dragon and EPs.

Burial - Chemz/Dolphins (preorder here): seems like Burial tends release one very immersive ambient recording and then one completely danceable haze techno every time.

○ [blank tape compilation vol. 2] (Steep Gloss): blank tape nothingness shaped into sound

End of year boredom list part II

Angelo Vicente Jr & Calineczka ‎– Life Is Nothing But A Sexually Transmitted Terminal Disease (Steep Gloss) - Download

The sounds of a nuclear reactor. Magnificent industrially-laden modular drone.

Ana Roxanne - Because of a Flower (Kranky) - Download

Beautiful ethereal ambient pop.

Anna von Hausswolff - All Thoughts Fly (Southern Lord) - Download

Pipe organ was the name of the game for 2020, but Anna von Hausswolff has been doing this for years now, right?

Gloriæ Dei Cantores conducted by Richard K. Pugsley - Stabat Mater: Choral Works by Arvo Pärt (Naxos) - Download

Ι always try to keep track of new Arvo Pärt interpretations. This choir has a less bombastic approach than Vox Clamantis and they represent a more subdued and perhaps more "tintinnabuli" take on the master's choral works.

  

Burial + Four Tet + Thom Yorke ‎– Her Revolution / His Rope (XL Recordings) - Download

As low-key and dub-influenced as it can get, hazy memories of something lost.

 

Chris Abrahams - Appearance (Room40)- Download

The Necks' pianist on a solo album of classically-influenced slow movements. Among the five best albums of last year.

Climax Denial - The Sorry Dream Of Being (Total Black) - Download

The aural equivalent of the limp cock of Atrax Morgue's ghost after a failed masturbation.

Cut A Lonely Figure - Rothko Horizons (Bloxham Tapes) - Download

Excellent concept by the head behind Blue Tapes, playing pipe organ to accompany famous painter landscapes, somewhere between Popol Vuh and church music.

Cut A Lonely Figure - Sugimoto Seascapes (Fractal Meat) - Download

The second installment of this project sees a combination of organ, harmonium and glockenspiel and the result is a vast expansive beautiful drone.

Thank You- Merciless Onlookers - Helen and Gavin - blue thirty-one (Blue Tapes) - Download

Third and last part is live electronics, harmonium and piano improvisations of a calming nature, with the other side of the tape being a psychedelic harmonium-driven Christmas jam by the mother of his girlfriend and her friend not much unlike Nico.

FUJI-TA - iki (Hallow Ground) - Download

Japanese guy playing a custom-built pipe organ without keyboards.

FUJI-TA - Komori (Boomkat) - Download

Incredible recording in a cave of Mount Fuji, where he plays his pipe organ accompanied by the sounds of bats.

Stuart Chalmers - The Heart Of Instinct (TQN-aut) - Download

 

Stuart Chalmers at this most new agey and percussive. Fear not, sounds like a modern Zamia Lehmanni having chewed tons of magnetic tape.

Ron Morelli - Betting On Death (Hospital Productions) - Download

 

Pure evil modular drone on the crash of stock markets.

 

Iker Ormazabal - The Oscillation (Cruel Nature) - Download

Menacing repetitive guitar drones. If Sunn O))) had ever decided to record a Black 2 this could have easily been the result.

Kali Malone - Studies For Organ (self-released) - Download

One of the best exponents of Swedish-based organ drones shares the rehearsal tapes for her magnificent 2019 The Sacrificial Code album.

Mats Erlandsson - Minnesmärke (Hallow Ground) - Download

Gimme gimme gimme a Swedish organ drone after midnight.

Miles Davis - The Lost Septet (Sleepy Night Records) - Download

1971 concert in Vienna featuring Keith Jarrett on electric piano, Gary Bartz on saxes, Michael Henderson, electric bass, Ndugu Chancler on drums with Don Alias and Mtume. Tracks from Bitches Brew, In A Silent Way and Jack Johnson in almost free jazz fashion.

Lustmord - Trinity (self-released) - Download

This album, which should have been part of Lustmord's canon, contains recordings made at the Los Alamos nuclear bombing site, and is as apocalyptic and dense as Lustmord can do. I suspect it's going to be much better than his forthcoming album containing vocals. Must hear.

Nimh + Rapoon - Post-Folk Lore Vol. 1 (Winter-Light) - Download

I've always liked Rapoon but for some reason I've only listened to very few albums. This one proves that I should have done more, as it is a mind-bending psychedelic mindfuck.

Rovellasca - Chiaroscuro (self-released) - Download

Deep drone void, and, oops, there is again a pipe organ!

Rovellasca - Delirium- Or Sonata (Crow Versus Crow) - Download

There must be something in the water of Gateshead that makes people make black hole drones; Lee Stokoe of Culver and Craig Johnson/Rovellasca/Invisible City Records have definitely drunk from this water.

Samuel Reinhard - Miniatures (Präsens Editionen)- Download

I can't really decide if the best thing here is the music - extremely quiet and heartbreaking piano ambient - or the intense tape hiss!

Several Wives - Veil on Veil - (Lost Tribe Sound) - Download

Deep cinematic ambient doom. Vibes of David Lynch, Bohren, Dirty Beaches creep in. (Check also Sulking Now here, again 2020)

 

Several Wives & Diurnal Burdens - Persuasion - Decline - (Invisible City) - Download

Heavy, throbbing concrete ambient drone.

Valentina Magaletti, Marlene Ribeiro - Due Matte (Commando Vanessa) - Download

Submerging percussion-centered psychedelic rituals on the theme of hysteria.

Werl3 - Werl3 (Midira) - Download

Continuation of Aidan Baker & Gareth Davis's ambient free jazz experiments, this time with drummer Tomas Järmyr. Check also early 2020's Invisible Cities II here.

Pop Culture Rape Victim ‎– Carbon Monoxide Therapy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Intense harsh noise washes on the symptoms of nicotine withdrawals. I can't really relate as I have never really been a smoker but it's fun. 2005 cdr on Scrotum Records and Recordings For The Summer.

Download 

End of year boredom list part I

Don't want to whine about my inability to be consistent with writing. Just want to offer some good stuff that I discovered this year that totally deserves attention, in no particular order. It's been the worst year ever. Covid has hit the country where I live very hard (perhaps not as hard as the big European countries, but still too hard given the financial situation and the inexistence of the health system). We have decided to keep our small boy inside home as much as we can in order to protect him, but of course it is psychologically very difficult both for us and him, and I see no end in sight. The thing that is going to stay even when the pandemic dies down is the destruction of working class rights and the right to going on strike and demonstrating. The government has extreme fascist tendencies, clamping down on demonstrations and protests, and has ratified any thing that bosses and capitalists want in order to undermine our rights. Being a working class activist myself, participating in a trade union, I've tried very hard to defend my and my colleagues rights and I have been targeted by my employer, who has threatened not to renew my contract when it expires next June. I don't really hope that things will get better, they will probably get worse, but I still wish everyone safety and sanity. Fight fascism, fight capitalism.

PS: I work as a teacher at a private language school in the afternoon, and last week I was called to work at a state school too in the morning, so even less time...

Beherit - Bardo Exist - Download

It was Christmas 1999 when I spend part of my holiday pocket money on Beast of Beherit - The Complete Works, being entertained by the savagery of amateur blast-beats. In there, there were some really cool ambient tracks of the last Beherit albums before the reunion. This one came totally unexpectedly 11 years after the awesome Engram, and shows again a return to the ambient experiment of Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance. Here we have less spacey stuff and a darker approach that reminds me slightly of MZ412 and Deathprod, with a slight classical influence and lots of Star Wars-like atmospheres.

Apocryphos - Against Civilization - Download

Great melancholic dark ambient. Quite original, with the use of guitars, and non-derivative at all.

William Basinski - Lamentations - Download

While the sounds here are often enthralling and very submersive, it is slightly disappointing as he decided to release a "hit singles" album with small durations. Still it Basinski.

Troum - Vorbei Der Tod - Download

Heavy, but too uplifting for a Troum album. After a series of superb albums in recent years this was a slight let-down.

The Gagmen - The Gagmen - Download

 I was slightly worried by Nate Young's recent "EBM" output fearing that Wolf Eyes are going electro, but this project with Dilloway, Andrew WK and Joachim Nordway puts everything in the correct Michigan horror perspective. Sparse, mind-frying, abandoned house surrounded by zombies in the countryside experimental magnificence.

Stephan Thelen - World Dialogue - Download

Excellent chopping and epic violin compositions performed by Kronos Quartet and Al Pari Quartet.

Blutwurst - Anabasi - Download

Superb minimal classical drone by an Italian collective with acoustic organs and pipe organ. One of the best discoveries of the year.

Dean Hurley - Concrete Feather - Download

Troubled and slimy, oozing synth explorations by the George Lynch collaborator and Twin Peaks contributor.

Dead Melodies & Zenjungle - Anthroposcene - Download

Perfect mix of dark ambient and jazz: imagine Bohren & Der Club of Gore recording for ECM!

Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger - Force Majeure - Download

Beautiful covid-isolation deep jazz on double bass and harp by these two great Harlem musicians.

Forest Mourning - Coven - Download

Awesome recent addition to the legendary Tyneside drone scene, Forest Mourning collaborates with Möbius and other musicians to create deep zoning natural drones.

Andrew Chalk Timo Van Luijk - Night of the Experimental Film IV - Download

Recorded for a film festival as a score to a Peter Hutton film documenting Icelandic landscapes. As this is a work by the two parts of Elodie, you know to expect dreamy liquid expeditions.

Alex Zhang Hungtai & Pavel Milyakov - STYX - Download

The more Alex Zhang Hungtai grows as a musician, the more I think he tries to match the soundtrack of Vangelis to Blade Runner, and that's a great thing.

Culver - The Razor And Deceit - Download

The coldest harshest drone you'll hear all year round by the Gateshead master.

Bart De Paepe - Melkader - Download

No psych-rock lysergic crawling here, but early electronics-like experiments.

Aaron Turner - Interminable Conniption - Download

Yes, it's really a 2019 release reissued by Sige Records in 2020, but since it's probably the best thing Aaron has released in recent years, and it's close to his glory House of Low Culture/Lotus Eaters days, it deserves a place here.

Acoxaca - In Abeyance the Devouring Flame - Download

Celestial drones on Other Forms Of Consecrated Life, a label that really deserves more attention (and must start releasing physical).

Anna Homler & Alessio Capovilla - Vasi Comunicanti - Download

Sensual ambient post-industrial with ritual undertones, think slightly SPK of Zamia Lehmanni era along with early Chris & Cosey but with a modern edge. Excellent phonetic language invocations.

Anthony Pasquarosa - John Moloney - Jon Collin - Live at Mystery Train - Download

Beautiful psych folk guitar/drums improvisations by the always great Jon Collin along with legendary drummer John Moloney (Boredoms, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Six Organs of Admittance, Thurston Moore) and Anthony Pasquarosa.

KTL - VII - Download

I think this is the best KTL (featuring Stephen O' Malley) album so far, especially the acoustic drones. "The Director" is one of the best tracks of last year, top-notch accordion-driven drone.

Lawrence English - Lassitude - Download

Modular drone but played on a pipe organ. How great is that?

Modelbau & MVK - The Hidden Accord - Download

Grey tunnel drones by the legendary Frans De Waard and co.

Stuart Chalmers - The Heart Of Contemplation - Download

Stuart Chalmers's "The Heart" releases are some of the most beautiful contemporary experimental stuff, focusing on manipulated ambient tape recordings of him playing swarmandal

The Necks & Underworld - Drift - Download

How does it feel to dance to The Necks. It sure is awesome, especially when coupled with some of the most emotional and zoning moments of their career.

Vox Clamantis, Jaan-Eik Tulve - Cyrillus Kreek - The Suspended Harp of Babel - Download 

Vox Clamantis paying tribute to Estonian composer Cyrillus Kreek's religious hymns containing lots of 

folk elements.

Mønic - Trawler Tapes Vol. 1 - Download

This is actually an IDM music project, but this is really deep and minimal ambient drone.

Sarah Davachi - Cantus, Descant - Download

Epic and dizzying pipe organ and mellotron compositions by one of the best composers right now.

Sarah Davachi - For Harpsichord/For Pipe Organ And String Trio - Download

Even more epic pipe organ and string drone.

(To be continued)